Common Names: Skunk Weed, Polecat Weed, Swamp Cabbage, Collard. Features: Skunk cabbage, a common plant of the order of Araceae, is native to the United States and is also found in Asia. The perennial root is large, abrupt or tuber with numerous crowded, fleshy fibres, which extend some distance into the ground. The first sign of this unusual-looking plant can be seen while the snow is still on the ground. The spathes push through the mud, having a twisted point overhanging the orifice. They are fleshy, curiously mottled with purples, greens and yellows, and protect a round spadix in which perfect flowers are imbedded.
The dull flowers are seen in March and April and maturing its fruit in August and September, forming a roughened, globular mass, 2 – 3 in. in diameter, and shedding its bullet-like fruit, ⅓ – ½ in. in diameter, which are filled with a singular solid, fleshy embryo.
The flowers are the first pollen bearers to attract the bees. The seeds and roots have an extremely disagreeable odour. Chemically it is known to contain fixed oil, wax, starch, volatile oil and fat, salts of lime, silica, iron and manganese. Medicinal Part: The dried root. Solvents: Water, alcohol. Bodily Influence: Stimulant, Expectorant, Antispasmodic, Diuretic, slight Narcotic influence. Uses: A well-known and often-used medicine from the earth, Skunk cabbage is much valued in spasms of asthma, tuberculosis, all bronchial and lung affections, including whooping cough, hay fever, pleurisy and pulmonary consumption. Used also to control the involuntary conditions of hysteria, fits, epilepsy and convulsions. Dose: In small doses the powder may be mixed with honey: ½ – 4 oz. of honey, in ½ – 1 teaspoonful amounts. For infusions, the root, cut in small pieces, 1 teaspoonful steeped in 1 cupful of boiling water for ½ hr. When cold, 1 tablespoonful at a time throughout the day as required. Dose of the tincture, 3 – 15 drops. Externally: An ointment for external tumours which stimulates granulations and eases pain.
SLIPPERY ELM Ulmus fulva, Mich.( N. O.: Ulmaceae)
Common Names: Slippery Elm, Red Elm, Indian Elm, American Elm, Moose Elm. Features: The deciduous Elm can be found in Central and North America and Asia. There are about twenty species belonging the the Elm family( Ulmaceae). Slippery, or Red, elm is smaller than the rest of the elm family( 60 ft. or less) with a wide open crown. The bark and leaves are characteristically rough, deeply furrowed; under layers ruddy brown, protecting the white aromatic fibres used medicinally; odour distinct; taste mucilaginous. The leaves are extremely rough on top, deep yellowish olive-green, lighter and sometimes rusty beneath; flowering in March or April before the leaves appear; fruit nearly round in outline, winged without hairy fringe, ripening in the spring at intervals of two to four years. Medicinal Part: The inner bark( fresh or dried). Solvent: Water. Bodily Influence: Demulcent, Emollient, Nutritive. Uses: Slippery elm is an agreeable emulsive drink in any disease. The finely powdered bark prepared as an ordinary gruel has shown definite results as a demulcent in catarrhal affection of the whole digestive and urinary tracts, and in all diseases involving inflammation of the mucous membrane of the stomach, bowels and kidneys, and will sustain ulcerated and cancerous stomach when nothing else will. The bark may be chewed and the fluid swallowed for irritation of the throat. It has remarkable